Settling In for a Winter of Tumult

A pity this isn’t New England, which has spent the week staggering under the weight of a near-paralyzing cold snap. Here in Orange County we don’t get the brutish winters that lend themselves as ready-made metaphors for whatever crisis may be brewing. Simply put, it’s hard to conjure an image of a “long, cold winter” when the temperature bobs between 60 and 70 degrees through late January.

But if we could, this might be the time in Orange County government to do it. In fact, not since the bankruptcy of late 1994 (also a wintertime event) has the county been in such an unsettled situation.

For starters, much uncertainty grips the seat of power in county government, made all the more obvious by the Board of Supervisors’ firing Wednesday of Michael Schumacher, the county’s executive officer since June 2000. That comes on the heels of two supervisors (Cynthia Coad and Todd Spitzer) leaving office and of the departures of a few longtime managers of key county departments.

Those, however, are mere snow flurries compared with the approaching blizzard of state budget cuts. County officials are bracing, sure the storm will pack a wallop but not sure how much will be dumped on them.

All this is not completely lost on county employees who do the day-to-day work.

“There is a feeling of consternation,” says a department supervisor. “Some people say it even feels worse than the bankruptcy, in some respects. There’s a feeling that you’re not going to lose your job, because a lot of people have been here for a long time, but that you may not be doing what you want to do.”

That’s a byproduct of the recent shakeup in the planning department, where its manager took early retirement and a few dozen employees were reassigned in the wake of a major financial meltdown. That meltdown, in no small part, probably cost Schumacher his job.

Worse, the supervisor says, is that the cold front won’t be gone by spring. “It’s not just this year, it’s next year too,” the supervisor says. “We’re getting the word this is not going to be a short-term thing.”

The storm strategy, the supervisor says, “is to hunker down and hope it goes over your head.”

Another mid-level county manager is less glum, saying the changes -- particularly at the top -- may bode well. “There will be some opportunities for new folks to rise up, but in the short term, it’ll be like ‘Who’s on first?’ ” the manager says.

County government’s 850 or so mid-level managers are newly organized as a union, not because they wanted to but largely because of their inability to talk turkey with Schumacher’s office, this manager says.

However, like the other supervisor I talked to, this manager says the rank-and-file county employees are generally protected from the perils of such storms. As such, they’ll trudge onward.

“I think it’s more of a knuckle-down thing,” the manager says, “because public employees know it takes an act of God to remove them from their positions.”

If I wanted to beat the metaphor to death, I’d remind him that winter storms are acts of God.

This season of uncertainty may be more felt because it follows several years of relative calm. “Maybe because we lived through the bankruptcy, nothing ever seems as traumatic as that again,” says employee union general manager John Sawyer.

He’s confident the county’s emerging new leadership will (dare I say) weather the storm.

And isn’t that so Southern California? Even in the middle of winter, people see the sun shining.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.